1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to improvements in processes and machines for separating the fleurettes from a head of broccoli.
2. Prior Art
Preliminary searches turned up a variety of methods, apparatus and systems for trimming broccoli and the like to provide fragments, such as fleurettes, suitable for packing and freezing or for salad bars. Fragmentation has been effected by positioning the head to be trimmed and then cutting the base of the fleurettes from the stalk of the head so that all of the severed fleurettes are about the same size.
In Hirtle, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,009,909, for example, the article, such as a head of cauliflower, is held in a fixed, head down position by an impaling knife, or pin, inserted in the upwardly facing core while a set of rotating coring knives of special design are moved into engagement with the article to separate the fleurettes from the core.
Switek, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 5,156,874, grasps the stem, or stalk, end of a head of broccoli in clamping jaws with the main portion of the head depending vertically downwardly. A plurality of slicing knives then moves upwardly to slice through the main portion of the head depending vertically downwardly. A plurality of slicing knives then moves upwardly to slice through the main portion of the head and severs the central stem portion from the peripheral sliced portion to provide spears of similar size and shape. Thereafter a rotary knife separates the still-connected stem ends of the spears from the central stem, allowing the freed spears to drop onto a discharge conveyor.
Wylie et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,773,324, discloses a broccoli trimming machine in which the broccoli heads are held by a pair of opposed clamping arms and gripper shoes. The head is divided into multiple segments by a segmenting knife, followed, if desired, by removing excess stalk by a butt cut knife, followed by separating the individual fleurettes by use of a spinning, generally semispherical, or bowl-shaped, cutter which sweeps through approximately 90 degrees, while severing the fleurettes, the force exerted by the bowl against the head being resisted by a backstop plate.
Shaw, U.S. Pat. No. 4,241,096, provides a method and apparatus for coring cauliflower heads. The cauliflower heads are lodged in individual bowls provided with spikes on which the heads are impaled with the root, or cull, portion of the head being disposed upwardly. A first rotary blade descends into cutting engagement with the head so as to remove the culls, leaving only the curds, i.e. the edible part of the head. This step is followed by applying a rotary cutting action to the head, breaking it into a number of edible curds which are removed to a collection station.
The foregoing references represent the most pertinent art known to applicant and applicant believes that none of them, taken either distributively or in combination, either anticipates or renders obvious the apparatus and method of the present invention.